Do you manage battles?

from Sins Forums
Is there value in trying to manage an actual battle? By default, ships come to a stop when attacking. It seems like you could potentially try to flank or some such, but it's not clear to me that the manuevers add much to your combat capacity.

Then add in the fact you've got a bunch of other things going on and I'm wondering if the battles are really just "fluff" so to speak, in that they're fun to watch, but in a real game you don't have that luxury. You put together a fleet of complementary ships, then fire them at a planet, and largely forget about them. Well, check up I suppose and click the retreat button if things are going badly.

For instance, capital ships have abilities you can choose to use rather than auto-use, but I just can't see any way to micromanage at that level and still control the 4X part of the game. And I'm just playing the small maps. In the midst of a battle, I'll have 2 or 3 planets tell me something is built, research is done, maybe a pirate warning, I need to queue up a ship, trade with the black market, etc.

I can see how I'd actually try and run a battle, but I thought I'd see if there are folks that are managing battles directly, and if so, how do you avoid the rest of your empire stagnating while you do it?
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Well, first of all if I'm ever working on upgrading infrastructure in late-game I put the game on pause, especially if it's a two or more system war and my front line is in another system while my moneymakers are in my home system.

Battle-wise I always go straight for the capital ships and I'll use abilities with lots of micromanagement. After the capital ships are down the rest of the fleet usually withdraws, but if not I'm confident they can handle it. There are a few times when I'm focusing my fleet on expansion and so my defenses are left to their own devices, and for the most part they can handle it. I'll usually swap between the two and make sure bombers are going for capital ships instead of say, devastators (they'll automatically go for siege frigates, it seems like). Part of it is being willing to let an asteroid go down, especially dead asteroids, since all they offer is tactical slots (unless you're TEC and do the research for extra logistical slots). After all, your defenses don't go down when your asteroid does, so why should you care if it gets nuked? You can replace it later.


I still can't figure out what everybody is complaining about fleet sizes and being unable to expand because of harassment, but I guess Sins of a Solar Empire just hits that sweet spot for me of a perfect balance between micro and macro.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I can see how I'd actually try and run a battle, but I thought I'd see if there are folks that are managing battles directly, and if so, how do you avoid the rest of your empire stagnating while you do it?

I do to a degree, if my main group is hitting a planet defended by a handful of frigates and defense platforms I won't bother other than the occasional check to make sure enemy reinforcements didn't jump in. In larger battles or at times when I really need to minimize losses I'll be in direct control of most of the battle.

To do this with my head exploding, I've developed some methods of my own using fleets :)

To me a fleet will actually consist of a couple of smaller fleets (in the game's definition). For example I'll have the heavy fleet with battleships and heavy cruisers, the support fleet with LRMs and repair ships and then the carrier fleet with carriers and flak frigates. Since the fleets are created by task I can assign fleet options that are appropriate for them; carriers will hold position (I move them manually), heavies attack anything in the gravity well and the support group only attacks ships in their local area. During combat I can all but ignore the heavies once they get moving unless I want to single out a specifc capship target. I move the carrier fleet to keep them somewhat close to the heavies so they can deal with any fighters or bombers in the area. The support fleet gets most of my attention as I try to keep them moving and out of the enemy's range, I manually control their targets to avoid them drifting too close and I manually control their abilities (repair, regen, etc) if possible. Sometimes I use the support fleet as bait if the enemy seems intent on hitting them, lead the enemy ships on a wild goose chase in large circles around my big guns.

That makes it possible for me to jump in and issue a few simple orders and then run off to do other things around my empire. In critical battles I just ignore the rest of my empire since everything builds so quickly anyway a gap of a few minutes won't hurt, I try to que up several orders before the big fights if I have the resources available. In the end I think my planets and production does fine if left idle for a few minutes so I worry about the battle more.

Sins of a Solar Empire II